New Generation: MRT Systems Ropeguardian™

New Generation
MRT Systems
MRT (Magnetic Wire Rope Testing)
RopeGuardian™
Continuous Rope Monitoring System
(CRMS)
345A Nutmeg Road South ● PO Box 637 ● South Windsor, CT 06074 ● USA
Phone 860.757.3055 ● Fax 860.757.3038 ● info@ndttech.com ● wire.rope.ndt@gmail.com ● www.ndttech.com
New Generation
Data Acquisition (DAQ)
System
New Generation MRT

(Magnetic Wire Rope Test)
Sensor Heads for
Wire Ropes Φ 0-120 mm
New Generation MRT

(Magnetic Wire Rope Test)
Sensor Heads for
Wire Ropes Φ 0-165 mm
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DAQ-05
New Generation Data Acquisition System
A New Generation Wire Rope Nondestructive Examination (NDE) System typically consists of
the following major hardware items (Figure 1):
 Sensor Head,
 DAQ-05 Signal Acquisition Unit (“DAQ Box”) (see Figure 2),
 Host Computer,
 Various accessories.
Figure 1: New Generation Wire Rope NDE System
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DAQ-05
Specifications
 Size 160 x 100 x 55 mm
 Weight 0.9 kg
 Memory capacity 1 GB
 18 hours of continuous data
collection
 Rechargeable batteries (Li-ion)
 Battery life 8-15+ hours
(depending on operating mode)
 Battery charger 120/240 V
 Environmental protection IP 65
 Ambient temperature
-10°…+50°C
 Download to Host Computer
via wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi
 CE marking
Software:
 NDT_RopeView™
 NDT_CARE™ (Computer
Aided Rope Evaluation)
 MS Office compatible
Figure 2: DAQ-05 Signal Acquisition Unit (“DAQ Box”)
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DAQ-05
DAQ-05 “DAQ Box” Operation

1. Online.
This type of operation supports situations where the sensor head is stationary, and the
wire rope moves through the sensor head. Examples include mine hoist and crane rope
inspections.
Sensor head signals are digitized by the DAQ-05 “DAQ Box” and transferred to the Host
Computer in real-time via wired Ethernet.
Using NDT_ RopeView™ software, signals are displayed on the computer screen.
They are simultaneously written to a disk file.
After the inspection, signals can be analyzed offline with the NDT_CARE (Computer
Aided Rope Evaluation)™ software.
2. Offline.
This type of operation supports situations where the wire rope is stationary and the
sensor head moves along the rope. Examples include guy-wire, stay-cable or zip-line
nondestructive examinations.
In batch mode, the DAQ-05 “DAQ Box” operates as an autonomous data collection unit
– not connected to the Host Computer. In this mode, the DAQ Box can be attached to
the sensor head. Inspection data from the sensor head is stored in the DAQ Box
onboard memory in the form of time and date stamped files, which allows data from
multiple inspections to be collected and organized.
After the inspection, when reconnected to the Host Computer, NDT_RopeView software
presents a file directory that can be used to select, download, display, and analyze the
desired inspection results. Data can be transferred to the Host Computer via wired
Ethernet or Wi-Fi.
It can then be printed and analyzed offline with the NDT_CARE™ (Computer Aided
Rope Evaluation) software.
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LMA-125 WIRE ROPE INSPECTION SYSTEM
SPECIFICATION SHEET
LMA-125 Sensor Head
Features
For the Nondestructive Inspection of wire ropes with diameters 0 to 1¼ inch (0-32 mm).
Speed and Distance wheel assembly: Calibrated for Meters.
LMA-125 Sensor Head

 Dimensions: (LxWxH) (without handles) 10” x 3” x 6” (254 x 76 x 152 mm)
 Weight: 17 lbs. (8 kg)
Environmental Protection: IP 67
Performance
 Rope Sizes: Φ 0 - 1¼ inch (0 - 32 mm)
 Rope Speed: 0.03 to 3 m/sec (0.5 to 600 feet per minute)
 Test Signals: LF and LMA Signal, amplitudes independent of rope speed.
Flaw Detection:
 Loss of metallic cross-sectional area (LMA):
Quantitative Characterization: external and internal corrosion including corrosion pitting, wear,
broken wires, broken cores, various changes of rope structure.
 Localized flaws (LF):
Qualitative Characterization only: broken wires, corrosion pitting.
 Wire Rope Roughness (WRR):
Quantitative Characterization: external and internal corrosion including corrosion pitting,
interstrand nicking, broken wires (single or in clusters).
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LMA-175L WIRE ROPE INSPECTION SYSTEM
SPECIFICATION SHEET
LMA-175L Sensor Head
Features
For the Nondestructive Inspection of wire ropes with diameters 0 to1¾ inch (0 - 45 mm).
LMA-175L Sensor Head

 Dimensions: (LxWxH) (without handles) 9.3"x 3.26 "x 6.9” (490 x 83 x 175 mm)
Performance
 Rope Sizes: Φ 0 - 1¾ inch (0 - 45 mm)
Flaw Detection:
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LMA-250S WIRE ROPE INSPECTION SYSTEM
SPECIFICATION SHEET
LMA-250S Sensor Head
Features
For the Nondestructive Inspection of wire ropes Φ 0 to 2½” (0 - 63 mm).
LMA-250S Sensor Head

 Dimensions: (LxWxH) (without handles) 9¾ "x 4½ "x 9” (250 x 115 x 220 mm)
Performance
 Rope Sizes: Φ 0 – 2½ inch (0 - 63 mm)
Flaw Detection:
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SPECIFICATION SHEET
LMA-300 Sensor Head
Features
For the Nondestructive Inspection of wire ropes Φ 0 – 3¼” (0 - 83 mm).
LMA-300 Sensor Head

 Dimensions: (LxWxH) (without handles) 13” x 5” x 10” (330 x 127 x 254mm)
Performance
 Rope Sizes: Φ 0 – 3¼” (0 - 83 mm)
Flaw Detection:
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SPECIFICATION SHEET
LMA-450 Sensor Head
Features
For the Nondestructive Inspection of wire ropes Φ 1” to 4¾” (25 - 120 mm).
LMA-450 Sensor Head

 Dimensions: (LxWxH) (without handles and wheels) 16" x 9 1/4" x 8" (406 x 234 x 203 mm)
Performance
 Rope Sizes: Φ 1 – 4¾ inch (25 - 120 mm)
Flaw Detection:
Quantitative Characterization
Qualitative Characterization only
Quantitative Characterization
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SPECIFICATION SHEET
LMA-550 Sensor Head
Features
For the Nondestructive Inspection of wire ropes Φ 1½”- 5 1/2” (38 - 140 mm).
LMA-550 Sensor Head

 Dimensions: (LxWxH) (without handles and wheels) 16" x 8" x 14" (406 x 203 x 355 mm)
Performance
 Rope Sizes: Φ1½ – 5½ inch (38 - 140 mm)
Flaw Detection and Characterization:

 Loss of metallic cross-sectional area (LMA)
 Localized flaws (LF)
 Wire Rope Roughness (WRR)
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SPECIFICATION SHEET
LMA-650 Sensor Head
Features
For the Nondestructive Inspection of wire ropes Φ 2”- 6½” (50 – 165 mm).
LMA-650 Sensor Head

 Dimensions: (LxWxH) (without handles and wheels) 16" x 10" x 21" (406 x 254 x 533 mm)
Performance
 Rope Sizes: Φ 2 – 6½ inch (50 - 165 mm)
Flaw Detection and Characterization:

 Loss of metallic cross-sectional area (LMA)
 Localized flaws (LF)
 Wire Rope Roughness (WRR)
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RopeGuardian™
Continuous Rope Monitoring System
(CRMS)
RopeGuardian™
Continuous Rope Monitoring System (CRMS)
Hardware and Software
Introduction
High-value ropes for offshore cranes and winches are expensive and safety critical. Each one
of these ropes represents a multimillion dollar investment. To protect the integrity of these
ropes, the most sophisticated inspection and maintenance equipment and procedures
available should be used. Any additional expense for more advanced inspection and
monitoring methods is well justified and offers a considerable return on investment.
For example, the condition of these ropes should be continuously monitored in order to extend
rope life while, at the same time, maintaining safe operating conditions.
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Realistically, a continuous rope monitoring system (CRMS) can extend the life of these ropes
by several years, and possibly double their useful service life1.
Under these conditions, a Continuous Rope Monitoring System (CRMS)

represents a low-cost/high-return investment with a rather small technical risk.
A permanently installed rope monitoring system will allow constant observation and data
logging of the wire rope condition, which will help to establish maintenance schedules. This
process will eliminate downtime for unexpected activities such as rope replacement, and it
promises considerable savings by replacing the wire rope only when necessary and/or on
planned maintenance schedules.
A CRMS also serves as an effective preventive maintenance tool. To illustrate, here are some
practical examples.
 The early detection of corrosion allows immediate corrective action through improved
lubrication.
 Accelerating wear and inter strand nicking can indicate a need to reline sheaves to stop
further degradation.
 Careful inspections can monitor the development of local damage at the crossover points
of the rope on a winch drum. This way, the operator can determine the optimum time for
repositioning the rope on the drum.
The following are examples of preventative operation and maintenance procedures that could
be implemented by using CRM Systems:
1. For offshore cranes equipped with a heave compensation unit. The heave compensation
system can quickly reduce the lifetime of the wire rope due to the large number of
bending cycles over a short length of wire rope. A CRM System could monitor the status
of the rope and give a warning when its condition is no longer acceptable. Or a CRM
System could detect that a certain area of wire rope is almost worn out, and that heave
compensation in this wire rope area should be avoided.
2. For conventional drilling rigs equipped with one hoist winch a ‘cut and slip’ practice can
be used. Here, a large amount of spare wire rope can be stored on the drum. After a
certain ton-mileage, the used section of wire rope is cut off, and a new unused wire rope
section is slipped through the reeving.
Other drilling rigs contain dual winch systems. Here, the travelling block is driven by two
draw works at both ends of the wire rope. This is a fast, reliable and redundant drive
system. By slowly spooling the wire rope from one drum to the other, the bend fatigue
load is spread over the complete wire rope length.
Presently, it is a very conservative practice to replace the wire rope every year. However, a
CRMS could allow much longer intervals between rope replacements.
1
Based on a comment by Mr. Sandy Steven, Subsea 7, at the IMCA Workshop “Rope assurance through NDE
systems,” Amsterdam, January 2013.
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Furthermore, if the condition of the wire rope is monitored by a CRMS, its exchange can be
planned in a timely fashion.
A CRMS will assess rope health and required safety margins on a continuous basis. This will
allow optimum operation over the serviceable life of the rope.
Another benefit of a CRMS is to detect unexpected damage or corrosion. Then limits could be
set within which all rope measurements must remain to ensure safe usage. Exceeding these
limits would trigger an alarm that is distributed to responsible personnel for appropriate action.
Moreover, online rope monitoring equipment must be non-contacting. This is necessary in
order to avoid damage to the rope and/or to the rope monitoring sensor head. Magnetic wire
rope NDE equipment from NDT Technologies, Inc. has the unique capability of measuring the
rope condition across a considerable air gap (lift-off) as required for a non-contacting rope
monitoring system.
RopeGuardian™ CRMS from NDT Technologies

Our recent R&D efforts on Magnetic Wire Rope Testing (MRT) concern especially the
inspection of so-called High-Value Offshore Wire Ropes.
We have made huge progress, unequalled in the industry.
Among other accomplishments, we have developed a magnetic Non Contacting Continuous
Wire Rope Monitoring System (NC-CRMS)
NDT Technologies has acquired some very unique experience that is required for such a
project. This know-how is based on a CRMS for a Φ 78 mm nonrotating multistrand rope, 3.2
km long that is presently installed on an A&R Winch on the Deep Energy, a Pipelay Vessel
that is owned and operated by TechnipFMC.
In the meantime, this CRMS has been successfully used during two pipelay campaigns in the
Mediterranean and for spooling of a new rope during a rope replacement. It is currently used
for pipelay operations in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
We also received a follow-on purchase order.
All our new systems are Ethernet based and compatible with any SCADA system. In other
words, we are completely prepared for the so-called “digital transformation of the oil and gas
technology market” including the IIoT.
Description
Here is a short description of this CRMS hardware and software.
There is an urgent need for suitable equipment and procedures for the accurate and reliable
NDE inspection of densely packed, large high-value offshore ropes.
For example, a major problem is the fact that NDE is time consuming and requires
considerable and costly vessel downtime. Therefore, more often than not, NDE inspections
are considered prohibitively expensive, and it is frequently considered cheaper to scrap a rope
early. While this rope discard philosophy might be acceptable for smaller ropes, it is
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unjustifiably wasteful for large high-value ropes, which frequently represent seven figure
investments.
Furthermore, this so-called Statutory Retirement approach is inherently unsafe and has
caused all too many rope failures in the past.
To sidestep these problems, a permanently installed continuous rope monitoring system
(CRMS) is the only feasible approach to making the NDE inspection of these high-value ropes
possible.
NDT Technologies has the exclusive know-how for producing a non-contacting CRMS. This
capability is not available from any competitor.
Continuous Rope Monitoring System (CRMS)
Click here for videos:

http://bit.ly/2TZzFC5
http://bit.ly/2VqOUVC
http://bit.ly/2VEYU2g
Sensor Head Weight

 The above CRMS sensor head for a Φ 78mm rope weighs 72kg.
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NDT_CARE™ (Computer Aided Rope Evaluation) Software
In connection with our
 New Generation Wire Rope Nondestructive Examination (NDE) Systems
and our
 Continuous Wire Rope Monitoring System (CRMS)
we developed our
 NDT_CARE (Computer Aided Rope Evaluation) 3.0 “VISTA” software.
Please click on the link to watch a video demonstration.
Here is a description of this software.
NDT_CARE VISTA gives a complete record of an entire, possible very complex, rope
examination, including
1. LMA, LF and WRR signals
2. Inspection time, distance along rope, total length of rope inspected, rope speed,
and of start-stop operation.
For example, this software can be used for monitoring the rope condition, distance and
speed, and time during complex rope maneuvers like
1. A&R operations of pipelay vessels,
2. Deep sea lifts.
3. Combined visual and MRT inspections when the rope is stopped during an MRT
inspection and moved back forth for a visual examination, etc.
Shown in the video are
1. An experimental inspection performed on a test rope at NDT Technologies. Here,
the ends of the rope are welded together to form an infinite loop. The rope is
exactly 5 m long. The weld shows clearly on the LMA/LF traces, and it can be
used as a 5 m distance marker.
2. Spooling of a Φ 78 mm A&R winch rope that is 3.2 km long and lasted about 10
hours with numerous lengthy stops for repositioning of the pipelay vessel and the
supply barge.
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For more illustrations of our recent software developments, please watch additional tutorial
videos on our new NDT_CARE™ 3.0 (Computer Aided Rope Evaluation) software. We
uploaded them to YouTube and to our DropBox:
 https://youtu.be/H3Cf37xEYoE and
 https://www.dropbox.com/s/l18vl7smrdc2ip3/14%20NDT%20CARE%203_0%20Sta
tionary%20Calibration%20and%20Speed%20Signal.mp4?dl=0.
Note that the example inspection discussed in the videos is well documented in several papers
that you can download as follows:
 Wire Rope Roughness (WRR), a new indicator for the quantitative
characterization of wire rope deterioration and
 here.
Our recently developed hardware and software tools offer powerful capabilities. They allow a
rational interpretation of test results and will take the guesswork – educated or blind – out of
making rope retirement decisions. They will profoundly transform inspection procedures for
high-value offshore ropes, and they will finally make condition-based rope retirement possible
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New Generation: MRT Systems Ropeguardian™

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New Generation

New Generation MRT

New Generation MRT

Figure 1: New Generation Wire Rope NDE System

Figure 2: DAQ-05 Signal Acquisition Unit (“DAQ Box”)

DAQ-05 “DAQ Box” Operation

LMA-125 Sensor Head

LMA-175L Sensor Head

LMA-250S Sensor Head

LMA-300 Sensor Head

LMA-450 Sensor Head

LMA-550 Sensor Head

Flaw Detection and Characterization:

LMA-650 Sensor Head

Flaw Detection and Characterization:

Under these conditions, a Continuous Rope Monitoring System (CRMS)

RopeGuardian™ CRMS from NDT Technologies

Continuous Rope Monitoring System (CRMS)

Click here for videos:

Sensor Head Weight

Here is a description of this software.

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